Recipe Creatio

[HomebrewTownsend]

OK, so I have been home brewing for while, off and on. I have gotten to a comfortable level with all-grain brewing, and have been wanting to dabble in recipe creation. Now I completely understand that you have your base malts, your kilned malts, caramel malts, and roasted malts. I also know that you use base malts to do just that, and typically make up 70%-80% of your grain bill. The other kilned, caramel, and roasted malts generally make up a small percentage of your overall grain bill typically 5%-10% each.

All of that I know, and what flavors they may impart, etc. What my question is, which I haven't discovered while reading a few books, forums, etc. Is, how do you figure your total grain bill weight?. I know that it's not as simple as saying, for a 5 gallon batch, you always start off with 10lbs of grains. When creating a recipe, how do you go about figuring your total grain bill weight?

 

[bobbrews]

Base malt can make up way more than 80%, up to the full 100%. Caramel, roasted, and specialty malts are optional but the amount used depends on the style you're brewing. An Imperial Russian Stout may have a significant amount of roasted barley and black malt whereas an AIPA would have neither of those. Yet both styles may have C40 set to 4%.

how do you figure your total grain bill weight?

Simple math...

12# 2-row
3/4# Carapils
1/2# C40
1/4# Victory

= 13.5 lbs. total grain weight

You use a target original gravity when building recipes. If you want 1.070 OG for a 5 gallon batch, you build the recipe to fit that parameter. Other than volume and grain weight, this is also dependent on mash efficiency.

 

[hogwash]

You use a target original gravity when building recipes. If you want 1.070 OG for a 5 gallon batch, you build the recipe to fit that parameter. Other than volume and grain weight, this is also dependent on mash efficiency.

This. I start with my target OG, get the base malt within eyesight and fill it out with the others and adjust depending on style, target FG, color, etc. Beersmith or another brewing program makes it fairly easy. Familiarity with good, proven recipes of your target style is also a good road map.

 

[justkev52]

OK, so I have been home brewing for while, off and on. I have gotten to a comfortable level with all-grain brewing, and have been wanting to dabble in recipe creation. Now I completely understand that you have your base malts, your kilned malts, caramel malts, and roasted malts. I also know that you use base malts to do just that, and typically make up 70%-80% of your grain bill. The other kilned, caramel, and roasted malts generally make up a small percentage of your overall grain bill typically 5%-10% each.

All of that I know, and what flavors they may impart, etc. What my question is, which I haven't discovered while reading a few books, forums, etc. Is, how do you figure your total grain bill weight?. I know that it's not as simple as saying, for a 5 gallon batch, you always start off with 10lbs of grains. When creating a recipe, how do you go about figuring your total grain bill weight?

Get Beersmith. You won't be disapointed.

 

[rklinck]

I agree with what everyone has said so far. At some point, you will get a feeling for how much grain you will need to hit certain gravities (based on your personal system). Once you reach that point, it is not far removed from simply saying I am going to need XX pounds of grain for my 5 gallon batch. I for example know that I will need right around 9 pounds of grain to get an OG close to 1.050 for a 5 gallon batch. From that base point, I can extrapolate estimates for different gravities (this is not as exact, however, because efficiency changes depending on the amount of grain). I use Beersmith, but having a general feel for the gravity I will get from a given weight of grain means I don't have to just guess and then make lots of adjustments.

I would suggest buying the book Designing Great Beers. The author analyzed information about commercial and NHC second round beers to provide descriptions of the typical grain and hop bills for various beer styles. It is interesting because you learn the types of grains that are usually used and in what percentages (although you also find wide variations).

 

[Nightshade]

I will toss in on the reccomendation of both Beersmith and Designing Great Beers, both are very worthy investments once you get into the designing aspect of brewing.

 

[HomebrewTownsend]

Awesome, very helpful making sense of it all. Like I said before, I understand what goes into your grain bill to produce a certain style. I just couldn't figure out where to start when creating your own recipe. Otherwise I was going to copy a recipe, then tweak it here and there.

I will say that I wasn't happy about the reviews for Beer Smith on android phone's. However, I found an app that works just like Beer Smith. It's called BrewR if anyone is interested. It is great, I love it...Thanks again for the helpful responses.

 

[Nightshade]

I don't use BS on my phone, strictly on the comp for me.

Some apps work but I find designing on the phone too tedious, if I have a design in mind I want to flow through it quick and easy.

 

[deflagratio]

Another hearty recommendation for Designing Great Beers and Beersmith. I find myself using the book along with a couple of sample recipes to build my recipes along with a little experimentation. I'm still new to designing my own recipes but It adds a new layer o fun to the whole process.

 

[HomebrewTownsend]

I don't use BS on my phone, strictly on the comp for me.

Some apps work but I find designing on the phone too tedious, if I have a design in mind I want to flow through it quick and easy.

That's why I recommended using BrewR, it's really simple to use. Plus you can flow through it quickly to produce a recipe. Honestly I think it's the best out there. Mainly because I don't have to pay for it, and I can have it right there whenever I want it

 

[cheezydemon3]

I recommend blindfolding yourself and running through your lhbs with an open garbage bag at 90 mph and then mashing and boiling whatever TF you accidentally bought.